Tiger boys 5th, girls 9th at Girard invite

Tuesday, May 1, 2012Tribune Staff Report

Fort Scott's Dezmund Willard runs ahead of a Joplin athlete during the 400-meter dash at the Girard Optimist Club Invitational Friday afternoon. Willard finished fifth in this event and second in the 100-meter dash.(Jason Peake/Nevada Daily Mail)

Twenty schools competed on Girard's new all-surface track, which replaced an older one. Fort Scott's boys won nine medals while Tiger girls won six. Because the field is so large, Girard always awards eight places.

Cody McGehee was the boys' event winner and was one of three Fort Scott medalists in javelin. McGehee went 157 feet, 5 inches to win the event by nearly 10 feet. David Goff was fourth at 146' 6" and Chris Allen was fifth at 144' 11 1/2".

Dezmund Willard took second place in the 100-meter dash in a very close final. Jones of Webb City, Mo., was the winner in 10.82 seconds with Willard just .03 seconds back. No one else in the race finished in under 11 seconds. Willard also took fifth in the 400 meters in 52.10.

Brady Fink won three medals, clearing 6 feet even in high jump for third place, running a 23.39 in the 200 for fourth and turning in a 52.39 for sixth in the 400.

Rounding out boys' results is a seventh-place finish for Race Kastl in the 110-meter hurdles in 16.37.

Webb City was the boys' team champion with 114 points with Carthage, Mo., a distant second with 78. Joplin was third with 67 points and Grove, Okla., was fourth with 62. Fort Scott was the best Kansas team with 45 points, one ahead of sixth-place Galena.

Fort Scott's girls did not win any events but had three seconds. Katren Rienbolt had two of them. She finished second to Beaver of Joplin College Heights in the 1,600 meters with a time of 5:23.42. Beaver finished in 5:20.79 while the third-place runner, Dunbar of Riverton, came in in 5:32.63.

Rienbolt turned in a time of 11:47 in the 3,200 mters with Werner of Grove, Okla., winning in 11:43.66. They were the only runners to finish in under 12:20.

Jillian Lattimer finished second in javelin with a throw of 113' 4" while Amy Orton of Towanda-Circle was the winner at 121' 7". Lattimer was also fifth in shot put with a mark of 34' 7 3/4".

Paige Denton also won two medals. She was sixth in the 1,600 in 5:46 and seventh in the 800 in 2:34.67.

Pittsburg was the girls' team champion with 104 points followed by Grove with 91 and Carthage with 64. Fort Scott scored 33 points, three behind eighth-place Webb City and two ahead of College Heights and Girard.

Tiger track teams will compete at the Thad Clements Invitational at Chanute Friday.